Sunday, July 29, 2012

So as not to get lost in the details, what I've been saying in part is that this issue isn't a fence sitting issue. It's fine that you need time to decide, but you do have to decide. Sexual relations have always been the province of religion, and even if you don't have a Priest or Pastor or Minister or Bishop or Elder or Shaman sitting in your bedroom with you, religion is in your bedroom and it should be there. Lest anybody make the mistake of proposing that I am in favor of a Theocracy, and the state putting a webcam in your bedroom, be clear that I'm not. The bedroom remains private but you have a confessional duty to disclose sin you have there, at least those sins with which you have an ongoing problem.

So we have the following problem which now seems to be settled by a lack of response to the position expressed by our small denomination of Christianity.

Since scripture makes few regulatory statements with regard to female bisexuals or lesbian relationships can we take a "live and let live" attitude toward disclosed attitudes or practices in that arena? Here are the consequences of that position:

1.) The marriage covenant (there is no specific word for marriage in scripture, it is a sort of covenant) binds all spouses to one another. As Dr. Keith "Allen" contended to me in person, polygyny marries all to one another. This is an exceedingly dangerous position to take.

Dr. "Allen" did contend to me that it ratifies sexual relations between women. Why? Because they are married to one another. Keith did not say it very clearly, but the idea is that the man has to be present or command it to initiate the relationship. He becomes a woman's husband, and by that act, makes them wives to one another.

So if one of them dies, is the marriage over? Marriage is to be sundered only by death or divorce. In the latter case, only for sufficient cause. If all are married to one another, the marriage lurches on without a man in the case of his death as a a lesbian marriage (thus scripture ratifies one form of same sex marriage) or it's ended when one woman dies. We can show this to be refuted by the death of Rachel. Leah stays on as wife as do the two concubines Bilhah and Zilpah. Since all are bound to one another, as Keith states, then only death ought to separate, but here it does not.

Reason says that once a spouse relationship starts, that shouldn't be sundered until death, that it continues, well, until death. This would not make a widow a widow if she was part of a plural marriage. The discussion of Abishag says that she was indeed, a widow. It was inappropriate due to the complexities of inheritance and succession, for Adonijah to have her. Neither Solomon (wiser than all of us combined) nor his mother suppose that Adonijah was trying to simultaneously wed all of David's wives, which included Bathsheba, Solomon's mother, who carried Adonijah's proposal to the King. Solomon rightly complains Adonijah is trying to steal the throne, not Solomon's mother Bathsheba.

Also if wives are part of the marriage, we know wives also don't divorce another wife, in a divorce, as they would necessarily have to do, if they were all in the marriage together. Deuteronomy says they don't.

We can rightly conclude as a result that marriage does not bind all spouses to one another, only wives to their husband. Marriage cannot cover what goes on between wives in a bed together, they're not married to one another.

Please combine the above with there being absolutely zero example of same sex play in scripture in the affirmative apart from Dr. "Allen's" personal assertion to me that the Hebrew masculine noun "rā'·ah" (רֵעַ rea`) was used to refer to other wives in Song of Songs 5:1. I conducted an extensive survey of the Hebrew word, and then I looked at the actual classification of the word in "Strong's." It's a masculine noun. Keith is guilty of the "word wrangling" forbidden in Timothy.

It no longer surprises me that a man who loudly proclaimed his status as "Resident Bible Scholar" (a claim once used in a forum he no longer frequents) or to be author of "Scholarly Teaching Articles" actually does work too poor to merit being seen as a "Bible Scholar" or writing "Scholarly" articles. The only two explanations for this (beyond being stupid) are that he isn't scholarly regardless of credential, or he's been rendered dishonest because of a personal agenda. It's as if he equates "to," "too" and "two" as being the same words in the previous sentence. I prefer he simply admits to an agenda, and then approaches his work with more objectivity. Barring that explanation he's a deceiver or stupid. I guess my I hope then is that he's stupid since the only alternative left after "stupid" or "agenda," is deceiver. I think I'd rather know someone stupid if those are the choices.

2.) The next consequence of Keith's assertions to me and his public work are that there are forms of sexual behavior that are not restricted to persons in wedlock and in the event that you agree with me on the prior point, that's where we're left. The lack of forbidding of sexually tinged behavior, behavior that intentionally excites or ends up fulfilling excitement or desire, is that it means we can engage in all forms of play that are sexual in nature as long as they don't involve penetration by a man with his phallus, below the navel or above the knee. This in truth is what Dr. "Allen" argues for. Must I again tell you how wide the door opens at this point? Since it's merely sex play, and not sexual "knowing" (yada), it's not spoken to in the Law of God as given to Moses. We therefore have no guidelines as to participants in such play, we only have the boundary lines of where a man can use his genitalia in a sort of twisted "Tropic of Cancer" Henry Miller sense. No restrictions exist for females except for the use of phallic substitutes between the "tropics" (navel and knees). Use your imagination as far as you're willing to go with that one, and then go about two steps further, and see if that's where you think we are, morally.

I don't know of a third choice on the Polyamory affirmative, agnostic or winking side of the street. The third choice is only as we in our church have defined it.

Females are for males, and only for her male, namely her husband. Scripture doesn't discuss what acts are acceptable between husband and a wife, only that it be between them. Scripture declares the marriage bed to be "undefiled." This is the simplicity of Deuteronomy 30, that truth really isn't hard stuff, and too far away or up or down to go get. Knowing and believing the word makes you wise as stated by Psalm 119.

Sexual behavior is the province of religion as I stated at the outset. Again, I have no intention of delving into the sex lives of those Christians I know. If you have been convicted of sin in that area, and if you haven't appropriately repented of it (to God and to those you sinned against and you have stopped doing it), you need to confess it. If you confess it in the affirmative (I'm right and I'm not going to stop) you should be eventually anathemized. If you repent, there is some variation of "70 x 7" that applies. In the latter case, you clearly state you are wrong.

Because of it's central and vital nature, we're not free to cop out as teachers in the area of sexual behavior. For that reason, all who purport to be teachers who endorse even a sort of "agnostic" or "live and let live" position with acknowledged behavior in this area are anathemized. I agree that a short period of debate is appropriate, but failure to repent is alienating. I cannot for instance, throw John Whitten or Keith "Allen" out of my church, they're not part of it, but I can proclaim them false prophets or teachers, and I have an absolute duty to do so. Both men need to absolutely declare it is wrong for women to engage in sex play with one another and all the consequences such behavior ratifies by corollary. No middle position is allowable. To take a middle position is to choose for permissiveness in a sinful way.

When it comes to non leaders in the church (those not elders, deacons, pastors or teachers or proclaiming to be such) I make the following ruling: If you are a member of our church and have unresolved questions in this area, practice nothing but heterosexual relations between you and your opposite sex spouse. Don't teach tolerance, refer to the teaching of our church in the matter. You are free to disagree but not practice in accordance with your disagreement. If you cannot abide by this, and are a member of our church, you're going to go out the door pretty soon. This is in fact the standard I used when being cast out of my own church in 2009/2010. You will also be shunned by us, teacher and congregant alike, regardless of church, if you can't abide by this standard.

I declare affirmatively "that as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." This is a tremendously frightening thing to do, as it seems to isolate us from the majority of the Christian Polygyny side of the marriage question, and sets us up as the righteous practitioners, and them as the odd men out. We're down to somewhere between being Samson, and Gideon, but much closer to Samson in number. I dislike the idea of being Elijah in the Cave or the Remnant. If right, that's a hard row to hoe. If wrong, that's the stuff cults are made of. I'm sure outside of our group, that word has already been used.

(I've made a number of changes to grammar, tense and forms of words as of about 11pm mountain time the date of this post. I was interrupted frequently in writing this and I can't keep track under those circumstances. It's what you get with an old man. :p. It's also what you get when you dare to use the word "stupid" with reference to another person.)